Elements of a Comparative Methodology in the Study of Religion

Journal Title: Religions - Year 2018, Vol 9, Issue 2

Abstract

While comparison has been the subject of much theoretical debate in the study of religion, it has rarely been discussed in methodological terms. A large number of comparative studies have been produced in the course of the discipline’s history, but the question of how comparison works as a method has rarely been addressed. This essay proposes, in the form of an outline, a methodological frame of comparison that addresses both the general configuration of a comparative study—its goal, mode, scale, and scope—and the comparative process, distinguishing operations of selection, description, juxtaposition, redescription, as well as rectification and theory formation. It argues that identifying and analyzing such elements of a comparative methodology helps, on the one hand, in evaluating existing comparative studies and, on the other, in producing new ones. While the article attempts to present the methodological frame in a concise form and thus offers limited illustrative material, the authors of the other essays in this collection discuss rich historical-empirical cases as they test the frame on their own comparative studies.

Authors and Affiliations

Oliver Freiberger

Keywords

Related Articles

How to be (the Author of) Born Again: Charles Colson and the Writing of Conversion in the Age of Evangelicalism

Charles Colson’s Born Again was the most celebrated spiritual memoir of the 1970s evangelical revival, and remains the best-known book-length conversion narrative of the twentieth century. Its account of how Colson—not...

Hermeneutic and Teleology in Ethics across Denominations—Thomas Aquinas and Karl Barth

This study arises from the context of current debates in the Catholic Church on the place of rule and law in moral reasoning. I suggest that ethics may be best served by approaches that place the human subject in a tel...

Religion and Family Life: An Overview of Current Research and Suggestions for Future Research

The primary aim of this paper is to offer an overview of current research into the relationship between religion and family life and to offer suggestions for future research. In order to do this, the paper distinguishe...

Exploring Professional Help Seeking in Practicing Muslim Women with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Washing Subtype in Australia

Religion and religious practices can affect Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) symptom expression and influence the way that people with OCD seek advice or treatment. This study investigated the expression of OCD symp...

Violence and Nonviolence in Shinran

This article examines the Pure Land Buddhist thinker Shinran (1173–1263), from whose teachings the Shin Buddhist tradition emerged. Shinran’s ideas provide an alternative model for considering moral judgments and issue...

Download PDF file
  • EP ID EP25906
  • DOI https://doi.org/10.3390/rel9020038
  • Views 349
  • Downloads 9

How To Cite

Oliver Freiberger (2018). Elements of a Comparative Methodology in the Study of Religion. Religions, 9(2), -. https://europub.co.uk/articles/-A-25906